We all desire a healthy spiritual life, but, sometimes, people find themselves dry spiritually. However, there is a level of dryness that is more severe. The scripture talks about the condition of having dry or rotten bones. Dry bones are a representation of disease, decay, and death. They symbolize lifeless existence. When the Bible speaks about dry bones, it refers to those who are dead spiritually or about to die from prolonged adverse conditions.
Bones in the body are living and growing tissues. In childhood years, the bones grow very fast, and a child grows in size and height within just a few years. The bones are like a bank where deposits and withdrawals are made, which continues to go on through adult years. If there is more withdrawals than deposits, people can develop osteoporosis where the bones become brittle (From https://www.niams.nih.gov/health_info/kids/healthy_bones.asp).
This is also true spiritually. Tough situation, bitterness, un-forgiveness withdraw more from about our spiritual bank accounts than thankfulness, obedience, and forgiveness deposit life in our spiritual accounts. Therefore, people find themselves very brittle and weak spiritually.
The scripture tells us why people experience spiritual decay or develop dry bones.
A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones. Proverbs 14:30
Envy eats away at a person and causes them to dry up spiritually. They cannot appreciate what they have because they see others doing better than them. This also impacts their relationship with God. They begin to think that God doesn’t love them and that He has favorites. Their envy could also lead them to hating other people because they cannot stand seeing others happy and successful. Stress, anger, and anxiety becomes their daily food, and they begin to rot spiritually.
A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. Proverbs 17:22
A crushed spirit is a wounded spirit. The person is in a position of depression and hopelessness, and they have lost their joy in life. This kind of spirit brings about spiritual dryness and sadness. There may have been long seasons of disappointments. The individuals may have an appearance of faith, but they are lifeless and depressed because they have not experienced the healing of the Lord.
Do you know of anyone who is experiencing this condition? Sometimes a church as a community can experience this condition. In the next devotional, I will share about God’s solution and His miraculous work in dealing with dry bones.
